The 38-year-old actor and filmmaker - whose debut has received numerous award nominations, including Best Picture at the Oscars - has admitted it ''crossed'' his mind to star in his film but said he ''needed actors who were better'' than him.

Asked about the possibility, he told Collider: ''It crossed my mind, a couple of times, but no.

''I wanted to direct this and I needed actors who were better than me.

''I have to say, in working with the actors for the movie, I did feel like, in talking to them, I had become the character, as well, to an extent, so that I could access the emotion that I was asking them to access, in order to describe what I was looking for from the scene.

''It was a very emotional process, for that reason. I felt what the characters felt.''

The film follows interracial couple Chris (Kaluuya) and his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), who have reached the meet-the-parents stage of dating.

She invites him for a weekend getaway with her parents and, at first, Chris reads the family's overly accommodating behaviour as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter's interracial relationship.

But during the weekend, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries and bizarre encounters with the family's white neighbours and friends lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined.

The film has been widely praised and Peele recently admitted he would consider making a sequel.

But the American star has since changed his mind.

He said: ''I'm definitely open to it. I love the world of this movie.

''But to be honest, I would never do a sequel, if I didn't think it was going to beat the original.''